Friday, August 1, 2008

6th Annual Tooling U Golf Outing

The 6th Annual Tooling U Golf Outing and Sales Meeting was held Thursday and Friday, July 24 and 25, 2008. The event was kicked off by 12 straight hours of “Sales Meeting” at the Hilton Garden Inn in downtown Cleveland, complete with stimulating presentations by the Content, Marketing and Sales teams. The highlight of the day was the lack of flowcharts and PowerPoint presentations – thank you James Vickers!After the meeting, the sales team headed to Ohio City for some fine dining and muchas margaritas at Mamocho Mexican restaurant. The staff would again like to thank Mr. Vickers for moving the Friday morning meetings from 7:00 to 8:00 am. That extra hour allowed time for more margaritas, er…sleeping!

Friday morning found the sales team back at the Hilton Garden Inn for a few more hours of business before moving on to Thunder Hill Golf Club and Fish Hatchery in Madison, OH. Team Daniel Cremieux made an appearance for the second year in a row, but found some stiff competition from Team Roundtree & Yorke. Hats off to both for their team spirit and inspiring a new award category for next year’s event – “Ugliest Team Shirt”. There are not many people who can pull off bright red shirts adorned with various fishing apparatus, or wear pink and teal palm trees with such unabashed pride.

The teams teed off to begin an arduous 18 holes of golf on a course with arguably more water than green. It is still up for debate what is more dangerous – the sand traps, the water hazards or the people driving the golf carts. Some drivers needed to be reminded that they were not on the tea-cup ride at the state fair, nor are “donuts” appropriate on a golf course. Once again it was proven that golf balls don’t float, ugly shirts improve your game, Chris “Seth Rogen” Pinner should never have been given a drivers’ license and golf scores don’t improve as the day goes on. Most important however, is the obligatory injured team member whose sole responsibility is to keep the golfers hydrated. Many thanks to Gary Hill. You’re the best beer man Thunder Hill has ever seen!

After an exhausting 5 hours of trash-talk and poor sportsmanship, the group moved on to the Grand River Cellars Winery and Restaurant for dinner, the post-golf party and awards ceremony. The following awards were announced: Best Score was awarded to Tim Cunningham, Dan Pruitt and Toni Neary who all received Gift Certificates to McCormick & Schmick; Greg Herlevi, Cindy Bernosky and Len Scaffidi were awarded Gift Cards to P.F. Changs and an assortment of golf instruction books for Lowest Putts AND Worst Score; The Longest Drive prize went to Jeremy Sobeck who took home a Ping Craz-e Anser Putter; Dan Sloan took home a Nike Tour Sand Wedge for Closest to the Pin; and Tim Cunningham was awarded a Ping G12 Hybrid Club for the Longest Putt. An assortment of door prizes were also awarded: A pair of much-needed noise-cancelling headphones went to Michelle Robinson; a $50.00 Gift Certificate to the spa of his (wife’s) choice went to Wes Howard; I won a $20.00 Chipotle Burrito Card; Katie Strand and Gary Hill each took home golf instruction books; and Chris Pinner received a $75.00 Gift Certificate to McCormick & Schmick.

Many thanks to the Golf Outing Committee for putting this event together, and to all participants for providing such an enjoyable day, despite the general lack of skill.
VP Operations

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